(Avila P.O.V)

Avila hovered over the perimeter the police had set up. Keep civilians out of the way. She scoffed. The police were doing that job just fine. And not a single police officer had tried to help the Avengers—they knew better than that. Avila kept herself nice and high in the air, so the officers couldn't see her eyes. People's eyes tended to show the most emotion—and right now she was afraid of what her eyes said. From below, her expression looked stony and flat—but tears pooled on her bottom eyelids, and Avila didn't dare to blink in case they spilled over.

"I don't trust you."

The words kept echoing over and over in her head.

"I don't trust you."

Why? Why didn't he trust her?

"I don't trust you."

Was she expecting him to trust her? She'd only known him for a little while, after all.

"I don't trust you."

Why was she so upset by the fact that he didn't trust her? Why did she care?

"I don't trust you."

Did she trust him?

Avila knew none of the answers to any of these questions, and that infuriated her.

A stray patrol of Chitauri raced towards the civilians and the police opened fire. Avila rotated her wrist slightly and three gold-orange streaks of magic shot out of her fingertips. They swooped in circles around the five Chitauri for a moment, then one streak dived forward and curled around a Chitauri's throat. The sizzling of burning flesh could be heard. The Chitauri shrieked and his companions swung their weapons at the streaks, but their blades passed through the streaks like they were air. Behind them, the choking Chitauri collapsed, and the streak let go of him. Once again, the three streaks began to spiral around the remaining Chitauri. Suddenly the second streak shot forward, impaled a Chitauri (to the horror of said Chitauri), and returned to circling. This continued—the streaks would circle, one would dart forward, a Chitauri would die, and circling would resume. When there were five bodies lifeless on the ground, the streaks disappeared and Avila collected the Chitauri's weapons. Two had some alien grenades, and she took those too. She was halfway through examining the silver armor (and deciding if it was worth taking) when one of the alien ships swung around and whirred over to them. Cannons hummed and rotated. Avila cast a shield around the people just in time.

Civilians screamed in terror. Parents shielded their children's eyes (for whatever reason) and clutched at each other tightly. Avila sent two streaks of magic towards the cannons. They slid into the muzzle of the huge guns and snaked out of sight. A second later there was the sound of an explosion and the two cannons snapped off the bottom of the ship. Avila rose slowly up and leveled with the ship, the shattered windows revealing four Chitauri frantically trying to figure out the problem with their nonexistent cannons. Upon seeing her, they scrambled for their weapons. Avila darted in through the window and was instantly forced to spin out of the way of a storm of lasers. Scowling, she threw out a hand, and a blast of magic slammed into one Chitauri. Another attacked, weapon raised above its head. Avila dodged the blade and caught the alien's arm, twisting and snapping it before kicking it into a wall. She whipped around in time to duck under a blow from another Chitauri; she kicked out and swiped his feet from under him, and as he staggered, sent a blow of magic at him and threw him out the window. She let out a sharp scream as something slammed into her back, throwing her to the ground. Pain gripped her shoulders, searing her skin. The fourth Chitauri approached cautiously, weapon still raised. Avila looked down at herself. Blood pooled under her and her arms were laced with electricity. The alien continued to draw closer, blade pointed at her chest.

(Tony P.O.V)

Tony watched the ship he had just attacked explode and collapse in a shower of ashes. To his horror, the neighbouring ship paid no attention to its fallen comrade and turned to the civilians.

After that, everything moved in slow motion.

Tony shot towards the ship, but stopped when the cannons abruptly fell off.

He saw Avila dive in through the front window.

There were Chitauri shrieks and one was flung out the window.

Tony entered the ship. Avila was standing there, one hand outstretched. She was watching the Chitauri fall.

She was only there for a heartbeat. But it was enough.

Tony saw the last alien pick up his weapon.

He saw it aim at her.

He saw the purple laser erupt from the blade.

He saw Avila turn around, a second too late.

He heard her scream as she hit the ground.

And then everything snapped back into real time.

Tony killed the Chitauri with one laser and turned to Avila, only to be interrupted by pounding footsteps as more Chitauri entered—reinforcements had arrived.

The aliens moved towards the weak body on the ground. Avila was still conscious, and was shaking her electrified arms hurriedly. Tony noticed the puddle of blood underneath her around the same time she did. Flustered, Tony stepped in front of Avila and took on the aliens alone. He faintly heard Jarvis asking about reinforcements but couldn't care less.

Suddenly the leading Chitauri let out a cry and pointed at Avila. Tony turned, expecting the worst. But Avila was sitting up, revealing a horrifying sight.

A huge chunk had been taken out of her back, revealing bone. Ripped skin hung loosely around the edge of the wound. Blood poured onto the floor, soaking her catsuit a deep crimson. And the weirdest thing was, Avila didn't seem to be in pain. In fact, she was looking at her arms, and Tony soon realized why.

Incredibly thin streaks of orange magic, the same size as the electric currents winding around her arms and shoulders, were snaking along her forearms. The stripes of magic flowed closely alongside the electricity, slowly wrapping themselves around the currents. Tony and the Chitauri watched in amazement as the magic smothered the electricity, until there was none left, and the streaks vanished. Avila examined her arms quickly at then looked up.

"Oh, hi," she said nonchalantly, smiling politely at Tony.

Tony lifted his faceplate to reveal his horrified expression.

"Is everything alright?" She asked, picking up a fallen Chitauri's weapon and making it vanish into thin air.

Tony looked at her back (or what was left of it) with a disbelieving stare.

Avila looked over her shoulder. She ran her fingers along the edge of the wound, and they came back drenched in blood. She looked at her scarlet fingertips for a moment before clenching her fist, hiding them in her palm.

"Oh," she said slowly, stroking her sopping suit. "Okay."

Is it the adrenaline? Tony wondered.

The lead Chitauri fell back down to reality and snapped hurriedly at his soldiers. They advanced almost immediately, thrusting weapons forward and growling warily. Flustered, Tony lifted his hands, only to pause at another shriek from the aliens. Tony turned.

The large gaping crater in Avila's back was...closing up? The torn edges were now laced with orange, and was making its way inwards, until the wound vanished. The blood pooled on the floor around her, dripping from strands of her hair, drenching her suit, all disappeared, until you could barely tell she had been hurt in the first place.

Avila stood up; her translucent wings erupted from her back and she gave them a few experimental flaps.

"I'm assuming you can handle this?" she said in a sweet, honeyed voice, her gaze fixed on something outside, "I...I have to go."

"Woah woah woah." Tony moved towards her and almost grabbed her arm. "You're bailing? On us? Now?"

She had the humility to look uncomfortable. "I just..." she gestured outside and backed hurriedly away from him.

Tony opened his mouth to protest, but she had leapt out of the window, spread her large wings, and taken to the skies. He tried to see where she'd gone, but the Chitauri in front of him growled, drawing his attention to his opponents. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the cryptic woman out of his mind.

Avila could wait. He had a duty to serve.

(Steve P.O.V)

The Chitauri made a satisfying 'THUMP' as it hit his shield, its broken body dropping limply to the ground. Steve sent the final alien flying with a single kick, and took a quick moment to survey the situation. The battle was still raging on, but his confidence was slowly swelling. Over half the ships had already fled or crashed into the ground as flaming metal meteorites. Steve put a fingertip to his earbud.

"We all okay?" He asked, leaping over a charred piece of wreckage and narrowly dodging a shot from one of the ships.

"Yep." Nat's voice sounded in his ear, slightly overlapped by the sounds of fighting. "Clint and I are good."

"I'm a-ok," Carol reported, sounding almost as if she was enjoying herself.

"Sam." Steve said sharply.

"Yep!" Sam sounded startled, as if he hadn't been listening. "Yes, Rhodey's with me, we're good."

The others all confirmed their very much alive and well presences, and Steve almost relaxed.

"Aaaand..." he counted on his fingers, "...Tony. Confirm your existence."

"...yeah. Yep. I'm good." The billionaire sounded tired, and his voice was sprinkled with worry.

"Avila's fine?" Steve prompted.

"Avila's not with me."

"She entered the same ship as you did, Tony, don't—" Steve broke off as a golden-orange speck streaked across the sky.

"Shit," he muttered, pelting after it, "NEVER MIND!"